In hono(u)r of American Thanksgiving, coming up next week, let’s all enjoy a classic episode from West Wing, in which President Bartlet gets on the phone to the Butterball Hotline:

If they ever bring West Wing back on the air, which you know isn’t going to happen — but I’m just saying, IF… it’ll need a bit of an update. According to Mary Clingman, director of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, the virtual turkey guru is spreading its greasy little wings to help even more poultry-challenged holiday cooks:

This holiday season, the advice Americans have trusted for years is even more accessible with turkey tips, reminders and alerts sent straight to your mobile phone, a new mobile Web site, Web chats on Butterball.com, or live expert advice at 1-800-BUTTERBALL…

The next Butterball Web chat goes live on November 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central. I’m almost tempted to pull a President Bartlet…

Photo: trekkyandy

My friend Paul, who cooks professionally at a local hotel, is always on the hunt for recipes that put a tasty twist on the traditional.

Last year, at Thanksgiving, he made an amazing pumpkin pie — we’ve been having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to make it even better, ever since.

What’s the result when two food-obsessed minds are put to work on one recipe?

A rich and delicious pumpkin pie for a special holiday dinner, that’s what!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Make (or buy) a single pie shell. Cook it as usual, and set it aside to cool while you prepare the pumpkin pie filling, as below:

Ingredients

1 ½ cups sour cream (sorry, but no — the low-fat kind won’t do!)
1 ½ cups cooked pumpkin (solid-pack canned, or homemade with liquid drained off)
3 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg (best if fresh-grated from a whole nutmeg)
¼ ground ginger (or a pinch more, if you like ginger as much as I do!)
¼ salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Gently heat 1 cup of the sour cream in the top of a double boiler, stirring occasionally.

Whisk together the pumpkin, egg yolks, brown sugar, spices, salt, and the remaining ½ cup of sour cream until it’s combined — then whisk it into the hot sour cream in your double boiler. Continue to cook over simmering water, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens and reached 170°F. (Paul actually uses a thermometer for this step; but I just “ballpark it” at about 6 or 7 minutes of cooking time.)

Remove from heat and cool quickly — take the top of the double boiler (the pot with your pumpkin mixture in it) off the bottom pot of hot water and put it into a bowl of ice water for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Beat the egg whites in a clean glass bowl with an electric mixer, just until the point where they will hold soft peaks — don’t over do it!

Fold the beaten egg whites gently but thoroughly into the cooled pumpkin mixture. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell, levelling out the top with a knife or spatula. Bake at 375°F about 40 or 50 minutes (this will depend on how much moisture was in your pumpkin, as that can vary) — until the filling is set, and just a bit puffed up around the edge of the pie.

You can serve this pie at room temperature — cool it on a rack for about 2 hours — or make it a day ahead and serve it chilled. If you’re going to keep it in the fridge overnight, do let it come to room temperature first, then cover the cooled pie with a piece of plastic wrap for storage.

Much as I absolutely despise the kabillion pop-ups that plague the Better Homes and Gardens site, I do enjoy some of BHG’s quick-and-easy holiday decorating ideas.

Here, for example, asparagus spears and long green beans make Thanksgiving-theme wrappers for simple pillar candles. It’s all done with a couple of strong elastic bands, and a length of satin ribbon to hide them.

And see that hollowed-out artichoke candle holder?
Very cool.

Grouped together with a few white chrysanthemums (easy to come by this time of year, and good tough flowers that stand up well to handling while you fiddle with your centrepiece), and you’ve got yourself the kind of table decor to make your Thanksgiving dinner guests feel special indeed.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving, here in Canada, and I think I’ve figured out why we have our Thanksgiving so much earlier than the Americans do — it’s to take advantage of the fabulous Fall weather.

Around these parts, the colourful autumn leaves near at their best in the first week of October, and the apples are practically falling off the trees.


The weather is cool enough that you can cook up a big huge turkey dinner without overheating the kitchen to the detriment of the cook, and frosty nights make the ripe apples sweet… yet the sunny days are still warm enough for us to go out in shirtsleeves — on Saturday, the younguns were out in shorts and tee-shirts!

We get a lot of the seasonal yard work out of the way, on the weekends around Thanksgiving time, and entertain a lot of guests — sometimes both at the same time, as in the case of apple picking — and still (somehow) have enough energy left over to take the dogs for a hike in the autumn woods.

Here’s a little bit of show-and-tell (for Lara’sTalk About Tuesday to share the joy. No pictures of the big Thanksgiving turkey dinner, however — everyone was too busy eating to bother with a camera!

Tired of the same-old same-old Thanksgiving decorations?

You can’t go wrong with the classic turkey (or a cocky classic rooster, for that matter), but here’s a fun new twist on the rustic Autumn yard art.

No carving.
No mess.
Reusable for years to come, of course, and very affordable at $11.95 (or less) at Gardeners.com.

Just push these simple iron silhouette pieces — turkey or rooster — head, wings, legs and tail — into a squash or a pumpkin, or any similar large round vegetable, come to that… Instantly, you’ve got an amusing vegetable sculpture to strut its stuff on your front porch or lawn!